The present invention relates to gas generators and more particularly to such generators which include a special pressure/reaction regulator, and to the latter per se.
At the outset it should be understood that the present invention will be described in the context of hydrogen gas generators. However, as will be understood, the invention is usable with other gas generators that produce desired gases from the reaction of reactant pieces, i.e. solid particles, and reactant fluid.
It is known to generate hydrogen by reacting nonferrous metals with acidic or basic solutions. However, development of conventional hydrogen generators has been slowed by the handling problems associated with highly explosive hydrogen gas.
As a way of dealing with such handling problems, certain proposals have been made to provide hydrogen generators that produce hydrogen gas "on demand" from easy-to-handle reactants such as acid/base reactant fluids and metallic reactant pieces. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,844 discloses a vertically mounted, multi-stage hydrogen generator that includes layers of retaining vessels that contain beds of metal fragments through which HCl is forced.
One processing problem that is presented by such "on demand" hydrogen generators (as well as other gas generators) has to do with the situation where system pressure exceeds a given threshold due to an undesired amount of metal fragments and fluid reactant being combined. To deal with such high pressure conditions, conventional gas generators include complex systems for relieving pressure that involve several moving parts. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,844 there is disclosed a set of ports associated with the retaining vessels and outer containers which may be aligned to divert HCl (reactant fluid) away from the metal fragments, and thus to slow/stop the generation of hydrogen.
Another processing problem associated with gas generators is the problem of separating unwanted, contaminant byproduct gas(es) from the desired gas. For hydrogen generators, one such contaminant gas may be steam produced as a byproduct of the exothermic reaction between metal pieces and acidic or basic fluid reactants.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved gas generator capable of dealing with high pressure conditions brought on by an undesired amount of reactant pieces and reactant fluid being combined in a reaction chamber.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a pressure/reaction regulator for use with gas generators to adjust reaction pressure.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved gas generator that is capable of separating unwanted, contaminant byproduct gas(es) from the desired, primary gas produced by the reaction.